I’ve written all my life. For more than seven years, I’ve written to you every week. Not to sell, but to share.

This approach baffles traditional business advisors. I see countless opportunities to monetize, optimize conversions, and deploy the usual email engagement tactics. I deliberately choose not to. Because the moment I cross that line, I break something sacred. The trust bond between us.

Your comments matter profoundly to me. You write things like “yours are the ONLY emails I will not unsubscribe from.” “Even when we disagree, you challenge my thinking.” And so many of you share your own experiences with me. That exchange — that genuine intellectual discourse — is why I keep writing every week.

In November 2024, I set a clear objective: carve out space as a thought leader in the sustainability and climate arena. Not because I claim to know everything. I absolutely don’t. But because I bring a perspective most conversations desperately need. The business executive’s viewpoint, grounded in decades of C-suite experience rather than academic theory alone.

I asked three respected colleagues to introduce me to publishing editors in the green space. All three graciously did. All three introductions led nowhere. Then in October, I took a different approach. I found Illuminen, an Italian-based publication, and sent a cold email asking whether they’d be interested in a former CEO who bridges business reality with sustainability imperatives.

They responded within 24 hours: YES.

I’ve been writing for them since. And the response has been extraordinary.

Illuminen reaches over 500,000 monthly website visitors and commands audiences of academics, government officials, corporate leaders, scientists, and environmental practitioners. The people actually making the decisions. Their least popular newsletter has 20,000 subscribers. This is real influence in the space where policy meets practice.

The beautiful irony? Much of my work was already done. Years of writing created an evergreen body of work that needed repackaging for this audience. The readiness wasn’t about creating more content. It was about understanding how to position what I’d already built.

I invite you to explore Illuminen’s other writers — the researchers, practitioners, and change-makers doing extraordinary work in this space. And yes, you’ll find my business perspective there too, challenging the usual narratives.

But here’s the deeper lesson I want to share with you today:

When we want something intensely, we’re almost always right about the wanting. We’re just not yet ready for the having.

Those rejections throughout 2025? They weren’t denials. They were delays while I developed the required readiness. I needed those nine or ten months to become the person who could seize this opportunity when it arrived.

This is why I refuse to ever give up hope about anything. Hope isn’t naive optimism. It’s the fuel that keeps me doing the work even when results seem distant. It’s my secret ingredient for claiming what I want from life.

What is truly yours will find you. When you are finally ready.

Perhaps this encourages you to claim your own version of this truth. Keep doing your work. Trust your readiness is forming, even when you can’t see it yet.